


Secret Codes

by prepare4trouble



Series: Little By Little [46]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Discussion of the Clone Wars, Dokma Races, Gen, Visually Impaired Ezra Bridger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:17:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prepare4trouble/pseuds/prepare4trouble
Summary: Zeb and Rex catch up at the Dokma races, Zeb worries that Rex might not have heard the latest news, and Ezra clumsily tries to make sure Rex isn't onto his Dokma cheating scheme.





	Secret Codes

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry! I know it's been forever since I posted one of these. This one was actually posted over on Tumblr _so long_ ago, and I just never got around to posting it here. And then I forgot. Bad writer!
> 
> It's here now though, and with luck I'm really hoping to get back to writing this series. So please let me know what you think, and if you're still interested in reading it. I have a few almost finished fics that I can post soon hopefully, but if I'm going to write more i just want to make sure people want it, and I've been out of the fandom for a while so I don't really know if any of my readers are still here. So drop me a comment to say hey! :)

The racetrack was busy tonight. Across the crowd, Zeb spotted Rex standing by the edge of the track, a drink in one hand. He was looking down on the dokma with a vague smile on his face. Not far from him were Ezra and one of the pilots he sometimes hung around with. They were both watching the race intently, seemingly focussed completely on what the creatures were doing, which, at that particular moment in time, wasn’t much. Rex didn’t seem to be with them, or with _anybody_ really, he looked like he was simply enjoying the atmosphere.

Zeb ambled over and stood next to him, then glanced down at the track. None of the dokma were even close to the finish line, and only one of them was moving in even vaguely the right direction. That didn’t seem to bother Ezra though, or his friend. They were both leaning over the track, staring down intently at the lack of action there.

Rex nodded a greeting in Zeb’s direction, then took a deep breath and sighed. “This takes me back,” he said.

Zeb glanced around. “Oh yeah, when too? The last time you were here?” He grinned at his own, admittedly not very funny, joke.

The clone smiled, probably more out of politeness than because he actually found it funny. He shook his head. “Not exactly; a little further than that. We used to set up things like this during the war. The other clones and I did, I mean.” He looked down at the track and shook his head. “No, they were better than this, actually, and that’s not just pride talking. These dokma are probably what we’d have called a ‘0 U 4’.”

“You’d call the dokma a bunch of random numbers and letters?” Zeb frowned, confused. “I know you clones have designations like that, is it something to do with that?“

Rex chuckled and shook his head. “It wasn’t random. And our designations weren’t random either, by the way. But yeah, if we’d encountered them back then, we probably would have. We used to call it the Lockeye scale, after the clone that came up with the idea. We’d rate the local wildlife wherever we happened to be, based on three different categories: threat level, use for entertainment, use as a nutrition source. It just made it easier if things were categorized, it meant if you arrived on a world another squadron had visited before, you could find out these things without having to work it out for yourself.”

“So you’re telling me the clone army spent their downtime categorizing wildlife throughout the galaxy?” Zeb didn’t mean to laugh, but he did it anyway.

Rex looked affronted for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. “ _Some_ of us did. Others just used the information. Not many wanted to be the guy that volunteered to eat some terrifying mystery meat just to see if they could. Of course, the Republic kept its soldiers well-fed, it wasn’t like we _needed_ to supplement, it’s just, who doesn’t like to roast something over a campfire once in a while?”

Mystery meat. Zeb grimaced at the memory of his own experiment, when he had learned once and for all that the krykna were definitely _not_ good to eat. Of course, he had assumed as much before he had even gone hunting, but having caught and killed one, it had seemed wasteful not to at least try. 

“These guys,” Rex waves an arm in the direction of the dokma, “are no threat whatsoever, that’s the ‘zero’ part. As for use as a food source, I have no idea; don’t need to know, don’t want to know, so U is for unclassified.” He shrugged and looked at the dokma again. “The four was for entertainment value, but actually, I might downgrade them to a three, they’re pretty lacking there too.”

“Everyone seems to enjoy the races,” Zeb pointed out.

“Yeah, but I bet they’d enjoy it a lot more if there was some actual action happening on the track.”

It would be difficult to argue with that. Only one of the creatures seemed to have moved since he had last checked, but no more than a few inches, and in the wrong direction. Even Ezra and his friend seemed to have lost interest in the race and were now talking to each other while occasionally glancing around at the other spectators.

“Yeah, they’re a solid three,” Rex decided. “They’ll do, if there’s absolutely nothing else around, but if we discovered some other creature around here that actually moves, we’d be rounding them up instead in a heartbeat.”

“There are other creatures,” Zeb reminded him. “Only, I doubt they’d be too entertaining either.” 

Rex let out a short, sharp laugh. “The spiders, yeah, I don’t see them scoring highly for entertainment value either. Well, unless we could set up some kind of spider-riding contest. You know, the longer you stay on the more you win, or…” he stopped, shrugged, and shook his head. “I can’t imagine people going for it.”

“Wouldn’t work anyway, you’d have to either go beyond the beacons, or switch them off and let the spiders in.” Zeb shuddered. “Personally, I prefer them to keep their distance..”

Rex laughed again. “Don’t worry, I’m not seriously suggesting it. I’d say the spiders are a ‘7 U 0’; Mid-high threat, unclassified again for food source, definitely no good for entertainment.”

Zeb grimaced in distaste. Seven seemed like too low a threat level, but maybe Rex was right, there were many more dangerous creatures out there in the universe. “Actually,” he said, “instead of that ‘U’, what rating do you give to a meat that doesn’t actually kill you, but makes you almost wish it had?”

He registered confusion, and then surprise, and then amusement in Rex’s face. “One,” he said. “Something you want to tell me?”

“Just that you shouldn’t ask how I know,”

Rex grinned. “Hey, what you get up to in your own time is your business. But at least I know who to come to if we need to test out any other critters.”

Zeb shook his head, but didn’t bother to reply. Rex wasn’t serious. At least, he didn’t _think_ Rex was serious.

A thought occurred suddenly. People knew about the spider hunt. They had seen him returning, covered in… stuff. Rumors about it had swept through the base even more quickly than the news about Ezra’s sight, probably because it had been so much more obvious, and because unlike Ezra’s news, it was funny, and people could laugh about it.

For days afterward, Zeb had endured comments from anyone who dared, and sideways glances from those who didn’t. Even now, it was still on people’s minds; he could tell from the occasional subtle comment, or a glance in his direction at the mention of the krykna. People knew.

More than that, they likely knew why. He had never actually told anybody the reason for the hunt -- it wouldn’t have made any more sense to them than it did to him -- but they had to know it had something to do with the news about Ezra that had broken around the same time.

So people knew, but Rex didn’t. Because Rex hadn’t been on the base at the time. And if Rex didn’t know about the spider hunt, did he know about the other, far more important, news that had spread through the base that week?

As far as Zeb could remember, he hadn’t seen the clone for several weeks. He might have been around just before the news broke, but there was an equal chance he had left before. The rumors and conversation had died down now that everybody knew, and anybody who was interested had read Hera’s file. Base gossip had moved on and claimed a new victim, and while Zeb could almost guarantee that Rex would have heard about the pilot that had been removed from duty for flying drunk, he doubted that anybody was talking about Ezra any more.

That was good, of course, but it also opened up the unthinkable possibility that Rex didn’t know.

Zeb glanced over at Ezra. The kid had moved a little closer to the two of them, but his attention appeared to be completely on the race, watching the lack of action intently again. Zeb couldn’t say anything now, not with Ezra within earshot. He wasn’t sure he should say anything anyway, it wasn’t his news to tell.

“Uh… so what was with the secret codes?” he asked instead, more to keep the conversation going, and keep it away from uncomfortable subjects, than out of any genuine interest. “Didn’t want non-clones to know which animals were good to eat?”

Rex laughed. “Not exactly. I mean, we didn’t exactly share the information publicly, but that was more down to circumstance than anything else. But in a way, yes. We didn’t want people not in the know to understand. Specifically, we didn’t always want the Jedi to know what we were saying.”

“No?”

“It was more the entertainment side of it. You know the Jedi; they were pretty live-and-let-live over personal nutrition, but most of them weren’t the biggest fans of using creatures like that.”

Zeb snuck another glance at Ezra, still intently watching the race. “Coulda fooled me,” he said.

“Ezra’s a unique case. Kanan too, actually. Times are different now.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Zeb saw Ezra’s head jerk up at the sound of his name being spoken; the human equivalent of turning his ears to an interesting sound. He didn’t say anything, but Zeb could tell that he was listening now. Maybe he had been all along.

“It’s something to do with the Force, and connections,” Rex continued. “Jedi could… _can_ understand other creatures in a way that you and I can’t. Some of them could even communicate with them, make them do what they wanted.”

To his side, Zeb saw Ezra turn quickly to face them. For a moment his eyes were wide with something like panic, but it quickly softened to what looked like mild concern.

Appearing not to notice Ezra’s interest in what was being said, Rex continued. “If you’ve got a connection that deep with a creature, I guess it’d be difficult to watch someone treating them like that; making them race, or fight, or whatever.”

Ezra took a step toward them, inserting himself into the conversation. “But eating them was okay?” He folded his arms, grinned, then affected a dubious expression, shaking his head slowly. “Haha, I dunno Rex, these old Jedi sound like they can’t make up their minds. You probably shouldn't trust what they said about connections, sounds like a load of rubbish to me, anyway.” He paused for a breath, slouched casually and didn’t appear to relax quite as much as he wanted them to think. “Hey, so you finally got back from that mission, huh? How did it go?”

Rex blinked in surprise, either at the interruption, or the sudden change of subject. he shrugged. “Uh, fine. thanks. Can’t really go into it though, but I’m here for a few days R&R before heading back.”

Ezra nodded and looked glum suddenly. Of course, missions were probably the last thing he wanted to talk about. Which made the question seem strange.

“Great,” Ezra said. “You know, connections with animals, they don’t really work like that; like you were saying. They’re more about understanding them, but you can’t make them _do_ …” He stopped abruptly as his pilot friend grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear. Ezra tensed, flashed Rex and Zeb a nervous smile, before following the pilot to the other side of the track to join with another group of people that Zeb didn’t know by name.

Rex watched them go. He leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice. “How’s he doing with everything?” he asked.

Zeb’s gaze lingered on Ezra as he laughed at some joke or comment from one of his companions. Apparently Rex _had_ heard, that was good; at least Zeb didn’t have to tell him. He shrugged. “He’s fine,” he said. “Well, unless you manage to catch him in a rare moment of honesty.”

“Heh,” Rex’s lips twitched into the smallest of smiles and he shook his head. “He’ll be okay,” he said. 

“You know that, do you?”

Rex nodded. “He’s got a great teacher,” he said. “I mean, Kanan’s no Skywalker, but he knows his stuff, especially _this_ stuff. It probably sounds terrible to say, but from a certain point of view Ezra really lucked out.”

“You’re right,” Zeb told him with half a smile. “That does sound pretty terrible.”

“Yeah, I know. What I mean is, I never claimed to understand the Force, but sometimes it seems to know what it’s doing.”

Zeb’s grin turned into a frown. “What do you mean?” he asked, curious. “About the Force?” If it was a variation on the ‘Force gone wrong’ rumors that were still circulating, he wasn’t going to be happy. But it didn’t sound like that; this sounded like something new.

“Kanan thinks that maybe the reason he…” He stopped, and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Something Kanan told me, I’m not sure I believe it. I’m not sure _he_ believes it either.” He shook his head. “Forget it; I shouldn’t have said anything.

But he couldn’t forget it. If Rex was implying that what had happened to Kanan had been part of some masterplan… “Just make sure you don’t say it around Ezra,” he said. “That’s the last thing he needs to be thinking about. Might even be worse than the other stupid rumor I’m trying to keep away from him.” He was feeling bad enough without adding guilt into to mix.

Rex nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping that one to myself.”

Zeb nodded, satisfied. Rex wouldn’t talk to anybody else about that, least of all Ezra. He probably wouldn’t have done anyway, but it was good to get that promise.

“I should head on out, anyway,” Rex said. “I’m supposed to meet Kanan in a bit.”

A ‘wine and whine’ session, no doubt; one of their little get-togethers that happened every so often. Or a mission debrief, or maybe some combination of the two.

Zeb nodded. “Sure. It was good to catch up. I’ll see you around.”

Rex cast a final glance over the racecourse and toward Ezra. Ezra’s back was turned and he didn’t appear to notice the scrutiny. “You don’t have to protect him, you know,” he said. “He’s survived a lot, and he’ll get through this too. He’s tougher than he looks.”

“We’ve all survived a lot,” Zeb said. “It never makes the next thing any easier.” Sometimes, it actually made it worse.

“Tough to argue with that, but still. How’d you like it if you found out someone was trying to protect you from hearing things they didn’t think you could handle?”

Zeb frowned. He wouldn't like it. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t help. “He’s a kid,” he said. “At his age I hadn’t even entered basic training. He’s got enough going on without another thing to worry about.”

“He might be a kid, but he’s not a child,” Rex said. “Is it for us to decide what he gets to know?” He sighed. “I’ve never known anyone go through exactly this before, but I saw enough of my brothers leaving the battlefield with an injury that wasn’t going to get better, to know that the last thing anybody ever wants is to be treated differently. Even if it’s with the best of intentions.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.” Zeb told him. Or… he didn’t _think_ that was what he was doing.

Rex nodded. “Good to hear.” He glanced around again, “Well, I’m here for a few more days, so I’ll probably see you around before I head back out. Maybe we can plan that spider riding contest, set it up as a rival entertainment source.” He appeared completely serious, except of the hint of laughter in his eyes.

With that, he turned and headed away from the track, toward the main section of the base. Zeb watched him go, then turned back to the track. His dokma was losing. Badly. Of course, the way things were going, there might be hours before the race was finished. 

Zeb sighed to himself. Rex was right, on a scale of 1-10 for entertainment, the dokma definitely came out at the low end.


End file.
